FritzFury: 2014 Spring Break: Staycation

This is a month late but it's been busy around here. The way I figure it, one month behind is not actually that bad. I debated whether or not to put these on here or not. It was a lot of pictures to go thru that's why I didn't want to do it. But in the end I decided that I did want it documented.

This year for their spring break I had asked Danny to take it off as well. We didn't have money to go anywhere so we decided to stay home and do things here. There are just so many things to go see and visit out here and we never tend to do it. So, thus we ended up with our "staycation." And let me tell you that it was just as tiring as going on a real vacation somewhere. I had come up with a list of things that I thought the kids would like to do and go see. They were things that were free or reasonable. Then we discussed it as a family and made our list and scheduled our week. Here are a few select pictures from our week of activities.

GLADSTONE BOWLING ALLEY

Our first day of spring break was spent bowling.

The kids had a blast! Every time we pass the bowling alley, which is infrequent because of it's location to us, Audrey will point it out. She makes sure to remind me that we went there one time. They all would love to do it again.

AUDREY'S BIRTHDAY

The next day we spend celebrating this special girls birthday. She had such a fun day. Lots of fun presents from family and friends. She was a spoiled princess. (I loved her expression in this photo. She l-o-v-e-d her cake, she couldn't stop giggling.)

THE MONEY MUSEUM

Colton and Audrey pose for pictures. This place was free in the downtown area. It's a small little museum. It's somewhere that we suggest going if you need something to just do one day.

Nathan and Josh's faces on money. Although, it was a quick tour, there were a few things for kids to do. And at the end of the tour they give everyone a bag of shredded money. Kind of a cool souvenir. But not so cool when it gets popped open on a child's rug, black rug, nonetheless.

Look at all that money! Who wouldn't love just one single row of some of that. I'm not even saying a section. But rather one small row would make me very happy.

LEGOLAND

Now let me just preface this with by saying this was not free nor cheap. But this was our big ticket item for the week. The kids were ecstatic when we threw this out as a option. This picture of the boys is at the end of the day so we didn't get Audrey in there because she was tired and grouchy.

Colton was very pleased with his airplane that we created. He had a lot of fun. He jumps up and down when he's excited. And he did that a lot this day.

Oh, Joshy! He is absolutely thrilled with his creation. He made this wheeled Lego then he was able to put it to the test and race others down different ramps. They spent a long while there.

They had various Lego pits all over. So the kids would jump in and just enjoy themselves. Nate is making some type of long boat or something. And well, Audrey started collecting those little green trees. She was hording them. Her pile became ginormous. It was funny because kids would find one and started handing them over to her.

Audrey is at the girl Lego's are. I think it was called Lego friends but don't quote me on that. She liked it there but didn't end up staying there for long.

Nate enjoyed burying himself in the Lego's. Danny and I don't know how they handled being in those pits. They were required to remove their shoes so they were barefoot. And if anyone has ever stepped on a Lego barefoot then you know the pain I'm talking about.

We do recommend going to LEGOLAND at least once for everyone. It's not necessarily cheap. We had a coupon that we got three of us in for free but to use it we had to wait in a "standby" line. The other option is to buy them online for a slightly discounted price but then you are assigned a time to arrive. Well, we wanted to use our coupon and got there just prior to opening. The line was actually already a good size. No big deal right? Wrong! It took an 1 1/2 to get in. They took everyone in first that had advanced tickets and would slowly let the standby line in. And let's not forget that it was cold that day too. We didn't bring jackets for us because we figured we'd get right in. So, we all, minus Danny or course, were freezing our woohoo's off. Luckily, Audrey had a small jacket in the truck. But it really was rather frigid that day. It was huge lines due to being spring break but I just didn't expect the wait times to be so crazy. The one bonus to all the long waiting is that I learned that our children are so NOT ready to go to Disneyland and wait in the long lines. They were so whinny and impatient and to think that I was pushing for a Disneyland trip for our family-I think we will now wait for several more years.

JESSE JAME PARK

Audrey and Nate having a marshmallow fight.

Colton and Josh getting ready for their battle.

We bought some cheap kites and had fun flying them at the park. They flew really well with all the wind we had.

Our picnic lunch at the park. Notice the boy in the back? He photo bombed my kids pictures

Daddy and Audrey having some lunch.

Jesse James park in Kearney is one of our favorite parks. It's a 20 min ride north of us. We don't make it here often but when we do the kids are in heaven. Their slides are amazing! They have a fun spider web net that kids can climb on. The merry-go-round is one of Josh's favorite things to do while we are there. This is where we spend our 4th of July nights, that's how we found this place.

MOON MARBLE COMPANY

Everyone is getting ready for the demonstration on marble making. Not really sure what Colton is doing with his foot, silly boy. And Audrey's smirk is just hilarious!

And proof that I was on this vacation with my family. I loved this shot because everyone of the kids are looking in different places. What a perfect shot of reality.

Nate forced us all to get pictures in front of the sign. Here is Josh and Audrey.

Nate and Colton

Mom and Dad

We totally recommend this place too. It's free and has lot of cool things to see in it's store. It has a lot of various toys and of course marbles. Lots and lots of marbles. We did let the kids all load up with a jar of marbles. I have to admit that I was also kind of into the different marbles they offered. It was kind of fun to pick them out. Nate chose a marble necklace that you can change out for different big marbles. It was a cool souvenir.

Friday night, after the marble store, we decided to end our week with a hot dog roast. We all roasted our own hot dogs and had the usual kids picnic consisting of mac n cheese, chips, fruit from a can and juice. What a cuisine! Then of course we roasted marshmallows. We spent the rest of the night outside. Danny and I sat by the coals while the kids played, wrestled, played, wrestled and wrestled some more with each other. It was rather hilarious watching Colton and Josh wrestle each other to the ground. We had to coach Colton along several times but Josh could prove himself to be a very good wrestler one day. Besides it being a little on the cool side, it was a really fun way to end our staycation!